Tickets are expected to go on sale in September/October. Prices are not mentioned, but the normal range for a song recital is £15-£50.

Unless you want to rely on returns, your best (though not guaranteed) chance of getting one is to become a Wigmore Hall Friend. Experience suggests all or most requests at Patron or Benefactor level are likely to be satisfied. Lower levels may miss out due to demand.

09 December 2013

Back in 2012, I looked at whether various classical venues' membership schemes were worth the money. Since then the environment has changed. Advance sales have declined. Last-minute discounting is now commonplace. The value of priority booking is no longer what it was.

Venues will start announcing their 2014-15 plans in January. So is it still worth forking out £40-£1,000 for membership privileges?

08 June 2013

Wigmore Hall's new late-night season last week was launched by a sell-out session from Classic FM guitar pinup Miloš Karadaglic.

'Wigmore Lates @ 36' begin at 10 on Friday nights. Each one hour concert (flat price £12) is followed by a free half hour-ish set in the Wigmore Restaurant from a jazz ensemble. Cringey name aside, the series is genuinely different from standard Wigmore fare - everything from Bach on sax to a recitation from Patricia Routledge.

If the aim is to bring in a new audience, then the sold-out Miloš gig certainly succeeded. The last time I saw so few grey heads there was a schools concert. The programme straddled a few genres too. Miloš began with Bach's C minor suite for lute, taking in a few latin standards before winding up with The girl from Ipanema, Bésame Mucho and Mas que nada.

It goes without saying he's a consummate technician, but what has elevated Miloš above the wannabees is his ability to draw an audience in. He doesn't just play music, he shares it. So deep was the spell he cast barely a cough was heard - even during protracted retuning between numbers. A little friendly banter cemented the deal. Check out the cheesy videos all over YouTube and you might be tempted to regard Miloš as the Katherine Jenkins of the guitar world. He may look as if he was designed by Simon Cowell, but there's real talent and genuine charisma wrapped up in that undeniably attractive package.

If he'd presented the same programme at a more mainstream time, it would be easier to criticise its lack of adventure. But for a late-ish set, followed by jazz from Julian Bliss downstairs, it struck a sympathetic note.

12 February 2013

Wigmore Hall's 2013- 2014 concert season opens on 7 September with a rare bari-summit. Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside join forces in what is likely to be the recital of the Wigmore season.

Other highlights include a five-concert survey of Bach’s keyboard works by András Schiff. Yo-Yo Ma comes to Wigmore Hall on 29 April 2014 to give his first recital there for more than 20 years. Matthias Goerne returns to Wigmore Hall after a three-year absence on 25 September for the first of two recitals in 2013/14, opening with songs by Schubert and moving on to music by Mahler and Shostakovich in January with Leif Ove Andsnes.

Coming up are the varied likes of Christianne Stotijn, Midori and the Arditti Quartet. But first on the list was the Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen, making her Wigmore debut with her regular accompanist Eveliina Kytömäki.